Some Enchanted Recording

It was some enchanted evening on April 7, 1949 when South Pacific opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre.  So culturally significant was this event that last week the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.  While this blogger, and millions others, have always recognized the Rodgers & Hammerstein show for its cultural significance, the Library of Congress has now also taken note.  Now future generations of American’s will know what it is like when ‘you see a stranger across a crowded room.’

To be selected for the National Recording Registry is an immense honor.  It not only signifies a recording’s popular appeal, but more importantly it’s cultural significance to the heritage of the United States.  The recordings aren’t based on trivial matters such as: “weeks spent at #1” or “total # of albums sold.”  Rather, selections are because the albums “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

Each year the National Recording Registry Board accepts nominations in 23 different categories for an album’s inclusion into the Registry.  Those categories include: Documentary/Broadcast/Spoken Word, Heavy Metal, Rap/Hip-Hop and Broadway/Musical Theatre/Soundtrack.  From the nominations, the Board then chooses roughly 25-50 recordings to be preserved by the Library of Congress.  In addition to original cast album of South Pacific this year’s list also includes: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, Van Cliburn’s 1958 rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 and a D-Day radio broadcast by journalist George Hicks.

The Registry is a who’s who of American political, entertainment and religious culture.  While Congress usually gets jeered, I feel that this is one occasion where they should be cheered.  For none of this would be possible had it not been mandated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000.

Going back to South Pacific, I don’t think it was picked solely because of its success on both stage and screen.  Yes, the show won 10 Tony awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has been produced around the world, but it also represents something more.  On the eve of the American Civil Rights movement, South Pacific unapologetically proclaimed, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.”  This statement is still as bold now as was when it was first sung in 1949.  That declaration alone is reason enough why South Pacific should be preserved, and listened too for generations to come.

The Republican Producers

Sometimes people fail for a reason.  In the musical The Producers, the main characters purposely fail to con others out of money.  Why the Republican Party consistently fails, and seems to enjoy doing so, is beyond me.

If you think I’m being partisan let’s take a look at the Republican’s blunders over the past two years and see why these events are so harmful.

2012 Republican Primary

Action: The primary race turned into a proverbial debate over which candidate was the most socially conservative.

Result: The primary race alienated female/gay/immigrant voters and positioned the Party as out-of-touch and out-dated.

Rape Comments by Reps. Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin

Action: In their respective 2012 races, Representatives Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin essentially associated rape to an act of God.

Result: Failure to condone these statements by Party leaders (including nominee Mitt Romney) further alienated female voters.

2011 Grand Bargain and 2012 Fiscal Cliff Failures

Action: Republicans were unable to reach a debt limit and fiscal cliff deal with President Obama on two separate occasions.  Furthermore, they could not articulate what their actual positions were in these negotiations.

Result: Not only did taxes go up, but public opinion shifted against the Republican Party.  The public now approves of the tax increases that were enacted.

2013 CPAC Convention

Action: While not an official Party action, it spoke volumes when the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) invited Donald Trump and Sarah Palin to speak, however Governors Chris Christie (NJ) and Bob McDonnell (VA) were not invited.

Result: I’m not sure that the public took note of this, but for those who did, these actions created the image of an out-of-touch conservative wing of the Party.

The first step is admitting you have a problem…

Fortunately the Republicans have at least another year until the 2014 midterm elections, three years until the next presidential election and several leaders are aware of their perception problem.  Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Governors Bobby Jindal (LA) and Chris Christie have all begun publicly discussing the need to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal.   As one leader recently said, the Republican Party needs to stop being the party of stupid.   But it will take more than speeches to do this including: public condemnation of members when they take to saying unintelligent comments, an ability to publicly communicate their message and to position themselves beyond the Party of tax cuts and abortion.

The Producers may have set out to fail, but if you’ve seen either movie version or the stage show, you know their fate takes a wildly hilarious turn.  In a black humor sort of way, the Republican’s fate may be similar, however nobody in the Party will be laughing when their failures culminate in electoral defeat.

 

Review: Elaine Paige at The Birchmere

Last Thursday at 8:06 p.m., the earth stopped when a musician at a black Steinway piano played the chords: D-D-E-G-E-G-E-D and a 4’11, 64 year old British lady announced to the crowd, “It  won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange…”  Yes, the time-space continuum of the nation’s capital paused, sat and listened to Elaine Paige make her American concert debut in one of the greatest shows to ever be performed in the history of Washington, DC.

Paige is not a household name, and you’ve probably never heard of her; however her voice has dominated radio and the international theater scene for the last 40 years.  She was the first EVER woman to portray on-stage, Eva Peron in Evita, Grizabella in Cats, Florence in Chess, not to mention reviving some of the theater’s greatest female roles  including: Edith Piaf in Piaf, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and most recently Carlotta in the Kennedy Center’s smash hit production of Follies.

Despite becoming an overnight sensation with Evita in 1978, Paige never made it to America until two decades later replacing Tony-winner Betty Buckley in the original Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.   Even after receiving rave reviews on the Great White Way, recording numerous hit records, having a top rated BBC radio show and performing for countless heads of state (including President Reagan), Paige never embarked on a US concert tour, until now.  Hence what made last Thursday so special.

Paige’s show is a combination of her two albums: Encore and Elaine Paige – Celebrating 40 Years on Stage, making it part autobiographical and part hit parade.   For her musical hits, Paige performed each song in the character and context of the show.  This is quite a departure as her theater contemporaries tend to put their own spin on a song.

Not Paige, she stuck with the music, lyrics and even stage direction for how she originally performed each song.  The result of her performance showcased the beauty that is the perfect marriage of music and lyrics in a show tune.  Each song became a mini-scene from her performance repertoire.  If that wasn’t enough she even performed one song in French, “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” from the show Piaf.

It was clear throughout the 90 minute concert that the audience recognized Paige’s extraordinary performance and they rewarded with her several, roaring standing ovations throughout the show.  Paige was clearly touched, as she even teared up at the audience’s response to her performance of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.”  When the audience cheered her mention of the flop musical Chess, Paige became overcome with emotion.  A bond had formed between performer and audience.

Paige is currently touring the US with her show, and you should use every LEGAL method possible to get tickets.  Her show is testament to the notion that great performers simply only need an empty stage and a piano to create something truly special.  At the end of her show, it seemed that Paige had played every audience request except one: please keep performing in the states!

And with her grand departure from the stage, the earth resumed its rotation and Washington went about its business.

Ms. Paige’s set list includes: All That Jazz, Broadway Baby, Hello Young Lovers, Easy To Be Hard, Yesterday, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, As If We Never Said Goodbye, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Non Je Ne Regrette Rien, If You Loved Me, I Know Him So Well, Memory and With One Look.

Ms. Paige’s Tour Schedule maybe found here: http://www.elainepaige.com/news.html

Just the Facts

Growing up, we used to watch a lot of retro-television in my family.  One such show was Dragnet, a police drama from the early sixties featuring two sobering cops who used to always tell suspects and witnesses that all they wanted was, “just the facts.”

Watching the coverage leading up to today’s sequestration cuts, I feel a “just the facts” attitude is needed to set the record straight.

FACT:  Today, March 1^st, $85 billion in federal cuts will take effect.

FACT: The White House proposed, and the Republican Congress agreed to, the sequester thus making both parties responsible for the situation.

FACT: The sequester does not touch the two biggest drivers of America’s national debt and deficit: entitlement spending and healthcare.  This effectively proves, what a stupid idea the sequester was to begin with (okay this last sentence was more of an opinion than fact).

FACT: Despite numerous threats from the Obama Administration, it really remains to be seen what the real effects of the sequester will be in each state.

These are the facts of the sequester as they currently stand.  If there is one word to describe the sequester, events surrounding the sequester and the behavior of our political leaders it is this: Cowardice.

Never has a solution so stupid, been proposed for a problem so serious.  And never has our political leadership failed to adequately respond to a preemptive crisis.

This blog has written numerous times about the need to tackle our debt, and will remain focused on the issue.  The facts remain that unless serious reform of our tax, entitlement and healthcare systems are enacted, the monetary and economic fate of the United States will not be pleasant.

May I recommend that for all our citizens and political leaders, we skip the theatrics, and proceed with just the facts.